Dan Mitchell's blog

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS IS TOMORROW-Time to dust off your eclipse glasses, binoculars and posterboard, or pinhole camera and witness the transit of Venus, a once in a lifetime event! (Actually, it's a twice in a lifetime event, but if you missed it eight years ago, this is your last chance!) It starts about 4 pm our time and will last around 7 hours. the planet appears as a distinct — albeit tiny — black spot with a diameter just 1/32 that of the sun. Follow this Linkhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47675548/ns/technology_and_science-space/ for scientific stuff and viewing information.

This morning while checking my personal facebook page, I noticed a picture had been posted from my Droid phone...but not by me. How can this be I asked myself. I then realized that my Grandaughter Jada (she is 2) had been looking at pictures in my phone last night. She must have done it! Now, it was an innocent photo of her younger sister Jazmin, eating her birthday cake. I got to cogitating on the possible ramifications of this happening again. Do I have any incriminating photos in my phone which could have been posted by the apparently advanced 2 year old? So I looked...This is all I found

The fifth annual Record Store Day takes place Saturday at independent record stores around the country. Retailers will be offering up exclusive vinyl albums and singles as well as having in-store signings and performances.
Here in the Denver arep participants include;

Some Rolling Stones fans have banded together and are demanding changes to the way the group tours. The Rolling Stones Liberation Front is threatening non-violent, disruptive action to get across their demands, which are:

1) WE WANT SMALLER VENUES: We believe the time has passed for gargantuan mega-arena spectaculars; hardly anything good comes from these soulless shows... The introduction of the considerably smaller B-stage set up in the middle of the venue at the end of 1994's Voodoo Lounge tour was a perfect step toward this philosophy.

2) WE WANT LOWER TICKET PRICES: We believe it is unacceptable to charge up to $350 for a single ticket... We believe a band needing to charge $85 -- $100 for upper balcony seats is a band no longer in touch with their fan base. We demand the ticket price for the next tour to be no more than $30 and without any and all service charges.

3) WE WANT A SET LIST OVERHAUL: With an immense back catalog of songs to choose from, there is no reason why The Rolling Stones need to stick to roughly the same 30 songs for every tour... We demand the following songs not to be played on the next tour: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Brown Sugar," "Honky Tonk Women," "Start Me Up," "Sympathy for the Devil."

4) WE WANT THE ELIMINATION OF THE HORN SECTION AND BACK-UP SINGERS: We believe The Rolling Stones have drifted too far from the true and basic rock and roll aesthetic. It's time to bring it back, back at least to the hugely successful 1978 Some Girls tour.

5) WE WANT THE EXPULSION OF ALL OPENING ACTS: We believe The Rolling Stones have stopped challenging themselves. There was a time when they would bring an opening band talented enough to challenge the Stones themselves, who, in turn, would have to step it up even further... How challenging can it be to follow Third Eye Blind? How challenging can it be to follow Jonny Lang or the god damn Spin Doctors?

6) WE WANT ALL FANS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEMSELVES: We believe the fault also lies with fans willing to do the bidding of their favorite band, no matter the cost. How many suckers does it take to fill an auditorium? Ask The Rolling Stones... We urge all self-respecting Rolling Stones fans to heed our warnings and join our ranks. Don't be taken for granted... Why give them more of our money and then settle for the usual? We won't.

The Stones still haven't announced their plans for their 50th anniversary. As for the demands, a spokeswoman for the Stones was unavailable for comment.7) From Dan to Mick...Please stand still and put some effort into your singing. And no more Belly Shirts!

The pepper-spraying cop seen at the UC Davis protest and other "Occupy" demonstrations has inspired a hilarious blog showing him using his pepper spray throughout history. Check it out at PepperSprayingCop.tumblr.com.

We all waste so much time on the Internet looking for all sorts of stupid or funny stuff. But now there's one website you can check out for all your time-wasting needs. Just head to IWasteSoMuchTime.com.

Here's a neat one -- head to DrawAStickMan.com, draw a stick figure and watch as it's animated and inserted into a bizarre adventure.

Fans of both fine art and fun games will enjoy Bla Bla. It's an interactive film that you'll undoubtedly find entertaining -- even though you have no idea what it is. Check it out at BlaBla.nfb.ca.

The Worldwide Ugly Couch Contest is on. There are a lot of hideous couches out there, and they're all featured at contest's official website NorwoodMall.com/ugly.

Those of you who watch a lot of porn -- and you know who you are -- know there are a lot classroom scenes playing on the whole schoolgirl fantasy. Oddly, there's always some sort of lesson written on the blackboard. BlackboardsInPorn.blogspot.com takes screen grabs of the classroom blackboards and analyzes the schoolwork. And believe it or not, everything on the site is safe for work.

Vinnie's Pizza in Brooklyn, New York is proud of its daily specials and wants customers to know about them. So, the restaurant has created a very funny and clever specials board each day that can be seen at SpecialBored.tumblr.com.

The Internet is more than just a tool for wasting time. It happens to be pretty educational. In fact, you could probably educate your kids just by parking them in front of YouTube all day. OK, that may be a stretch, but one blogger is compiling a daily collection of educational YouTube videos that she believes children should watch. It's called TheKidShouldSeeThis.com.

It seems everyone these days has a tattoo somewhere. And with so much body ink out there, it just makes sense that there would be a ton of really bad tattoos. WTFTattoos.com keeps track of them all.

The Week magazine has created a hilarious Bad Opinion Generator, which is a collection of the worst opinions and off-the-mark predictions throughout history. Check it out at TheWeek.com.

PostSecret.com is a community art project where people write their secrets on postcards and mail them. It's based on a popular series of books.

For many students, the worst part about taking a literature course is that the teacher actually expects you to read a book. Thankfully, there are Cliffs Notes to offer lazy students an abridged version of the assigned reading. But for some, even the Cliffs Notes may be too long. For those students, Book-a-Minute Classics offers ultra-condensed versions of classic books. Do you need Beowulf written for you in three sentences? How about The Great Gatsby as a handy two-second read? Get these and other condensed classics at RinkWorks.com.

Have you learned anything today? They say knowledge is power, and the more you know, the more powerful you are. So it pays to learn something new every day. LearnSomethingEveryDay.co.uk shares a random fact each day.

An interesting fact about the death penalty in this country is that inmates awaiting execution are allowed to have anything they want for their last meal. You don't want to be sent down to a hot and dark place on an empty stomach, after all. Photographer Jonathon Kambouris is fascinated by inmates' last meal requests, so he's compiled photos of death row inmates and paired them with the items on their final menus. Check it out at LastMealsProject.com.

Have you ever played "would you rather"? You know, the game where you make your friends choose between two hypothetical options? Rrrather.com is a continuous, online version of the game played by thousands.

A guy in Oakland, California was bummed that his MacBook had been stolen, but he knew he'd get it back someday. That's because he'd installed an anti-theft app called Hidden. The app took pictures of the crook every time he turned it on and sent them directly to the MacBook's rightful owner, who then posted each photo on his blog, ThisGuyHasMyMacBook.tumblr.com. Good news -- cops checked out the blog and caught the thief.

Google Earth is constantly travelling the globe snapping pictures with its nine-lens camera, and sometimes it catches something odd or poignant. 9-Eyes.com is a collection of these randomly snapped pictures.

The BBC has created a clever website that helps put world events, places and many other things into perspective. HowBigReally.com uses a map of where you live to explain the dimension of things such as environmental disasters, famous World War Two battles and the moon.

Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionHugh Bonneville - Downton AbbeyIdris Elba - LutherWilliam Hurt- To Big to FailBill Nighy - Eight PageDominic West - The Hour

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series,Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionJessica Lange - American Horror StoryKelly MacDonald - Boardwalk EmpireMaggie Smith - Downtown AbbeySofia Vergara - Modern FamilyEvan Rachel Wood - Mildred Pierce

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series,Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionPeter Dinklage -Game of ThronesPaul Giamatti -Too Big to FailGuy Pearce -Mildred PierceTim Robbins -Cinema VeriteEric Stonestreet -Modern Family

Penn State Scandal: Jerry Sandusky Rumored to Have 'Pimped' Boys to Donors and that Sandusky was told that he had to retire in exchange for a cover-up. If you look at the timeline...it makes sense... Click here to read the story on Huffington Post. Thoughts-Absolute Power Corrupts...Absolutely. These are the ways of major college sports, where the cover-up is a way of life. It's all about the Benjamin’s. The Penn State football program earned brought in over 50 million dollars last year. Whether it's recruiting violations due to booster misconduct or the hideous and unthinkable episode we are all talking about this week, the power of college football and the deification of our top coaches is a certain recipe for evil on some scale. And we still don't know who that then 10 year old boy is. Nobody thought to ask.

Welcome to Autumn in Colorado and fall foliage has already begun to show up in some parts of the state - particularly in the high country.

Peak color in the mountains occurs during the last week of September and first week of October -- but also varies by Mountain Zone. In other words, fall color starts to emerge first in the Northern Mountains, then works its way south through the Central Mountains then finally into the Southern Mountains.